Ann Voskamp, one of our favorite writers, on the temptation to be a Super Mama: And no matter how the craziness of this whole parenting thing all turns out: The reward of loving is in the loving; loving is itself the great outcome of loving. The success of loving is in how we changebecause we kept on loving – regardless of any thing else changing. And it’s a relief, how hanging upside down on the monkey bars, things can come to you. That... Read more

Zach Dawes wonders aloud how many have read Rauschenbusch. I wonder, too, how many who have not read him have criticized him? Rauschenbusch’s theology was straddled with an expression many thought was its condemnation, the so-called “social gospel.” (There is an excellent biography of Rauschenbusch by Evans.) But what is the social gospel? What did he say? Where is it wrong? Who do you think is a social gospeler today? How does social gospel and liberation theology differ? Where are... Read more

Consider the opening chapter of Genesis. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there... Read more

There was nothing alarming in the aftermath of the George Zimmerman trial. Those who were surprised that the African American community in America was outraged are naive or lying. The script we inherit in our primary socialization and in our secondary socialization, and here I’m borrowing from Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality (a book all pastors ought to read), shapes what we see and how we interpret events. What was alarming, then, was the subsequent-to-the-trial’s-decision observations, one from the... Read more

From AP: CHICAGO (AP) – Drew Miller clearly remembers the day his father was laid off. Miller, now 25, was a freshman at an Ohio college, full of hope and ready to take on the world. But here was this “red flag … a big wake-up call,” he says. The prosperous years of childhood were over, and his future was likely to be bumpier than he’d expected. Across the country, others of Miller’s generation heard that same wake-up call as... Read more

Conquering Lambs *The following post, by Preston Sprinkle, is adapted from Preston Sprinkle’s forthcoming book: Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2013). Preston’s book is due to release on August 1. In a previous post, I argued that Mark Driscoll’s cage-fighting Jesus has no place in the book of Revelation. Revelation is a violent book, but its violence is absorbed, never dished out, by Christians. The writer of the Apocalypse must have been a pacifist. Still, the author... Read more

There are some cranks today whose eye sockets bulge whenever someone brings up the “spiritual disciplines,” worrying such disciplines and deeds might lead to works righteousness or to undoing the Reformation, so it is good when someone like Jonathan Edwards’ own spiritual disciplines are brought into the discussion. Kyle Strobel, in Formed for the Glory of God: Learning from [read this] the Spiritual Practices of Jonathan Edwards. I have said a bundle of times that the spiritual disciplines are designed by... Read more

Do you have experience with this? What is your wisdom? Are today’s coffee shops meant to be the new office space for America’s disconnected workers? Many establishments, especially the big chains like Starbucks(SBUX -0.23%), offer free, unlimited Wi-Fi service for their patrons — presumably to let people linger and add to the ambiance. “We want to provide you with a great digital experience to go with your great cup of coffee,” the coffee chain’s website says. But Starbucks and small, independent coffeehouses alike... Read more